The US military carried out an attack on another suspected drug trafficking boat in the Pacific on Monday (9), killing two people and leaving one survivor, according to SOUTHCOM (US Southern Command).
“On February 9, under the direction of #SOUTHCOM Commander Gen. Francis L. Donovan, Joint Task Force Southern Spear conducted a lethal kinetic strike against a vessel operated by Designated Terrorist Organizations,” SOUTHCOM said on the X, noting that the U.S. Coast Guard was notified to activate a search and rescue mission for the survivor.
A CNN has contacted the Coast Guard for more details.
At least 121 people have been killed so far in attacks on suspected drug trafficking boats as part of , a campaign the Trump administration says is aimed at reducing narcotics trafficking.
The administration classified those killed as “illegal combatants” and asserted the ability to carry out lethal attacks without judicial review due to a confidential U.S. Department of Justice finding.
Monday’s boat attack is the third publicly known attack this year, and the second to leave a survivor. An attack in January killed two people and left one survivor.
The administration has publicly presented little evidence that those killed in Operation Southern Spear have affiliations with drug cartels, or that each of the vessels was transporting drugs.
The legality of the attacks has also been the subject of intense scrutiny in Congress since the operations began in September.
There is particular interest in the first, which included a subsequent attack that killed two crew members who had initially survived.
Several current and former military lawyers previously told CNN that the attacks don’t seem to be legal.
